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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22762495">(For a Given Definition of the Word) Impervious</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/written_art/pseuds/written_art'>written_art</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Horcruxes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:01:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,229</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22762495</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/written_art/pseuds/written_art</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Potter is a horcrux. Thus, he displays all of the characteristics of a horcrux, including invulnerability to all but the deadliest of magics.</p><p>---<br/>A/N:<br/>This is a plotbunny that likely won't be continued but is up for adoption with the author's permission. Enjoy</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>(For a Given Definition of the Word) Impervious</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Impervious is a story idea that's been on my hard drive for what seems like years, but that I never really do anything with, mostly because I'm not much of a writer. If someone wants to continue where I've left off, or do anything at all with it, I would be over the moon to read it and would appreciate a message so I know where to look. Harry Potter is NOT mine and I do not profit from this work in any way except by sharing my crazy ideas with the masses.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For a Given Definition of the Word Impervious<br/>Summary: Harry Potter is a horcrux. Thus, he displays all of the characteristics of a horcrux, including invulnerability to all but the deadliest of magics.<br/>---</p><p>Freakish. Bad. Wrong. Abhorrible. Inhuman.<br/>Untouchable. Unbreakable. Invulnerable. Impervious. Adamantine.<br/>(Beyond mortal, magical, a horcrux.)<br/>---<br/>Petunia Dursley nee Evans was not an unfeeling woman. Like anyone else, she had done and said things in the heat of the moment that she went on to regret. Sometimes those things were promises – of course she could do that for you, Sir, it should barely take any time at all, and when did you need it by again? – that were made to her superiors in hopes of impressing them into a raise and led to her pulling all-nighters. Sometimes those things were harsh words and cutting remarks that left gaping chasms where familial relationships used to be and whose end result was the silence between herself and Lily that neither was terribly eager to break. But the truth was that even if there were things about her sister that she disapproved of, Lily was still her sister. And when the day came that Lily was no longer alive to argue with, and little Harry Potter was left on Petunia’s doorstep, it was with bittersweet resignation that she cradled him in her arms. She’d been right, after all, that all that magic nonsense was too good to be true, but there was too late to rub anyone’s nose in it. So Petunia turned to her husband, oblivious at the dinner table, and explained then and there that they would be raising a second child sooner than they’d imagined.<br/>---<br/>It wasn’t that Petunia or Vernon disliked Harry, or that they had any malicious intensions when they took him in. A baby was only a baby, after all, and all babies were innocent of their parent’s misdoings. It was more that they didn’t know what to make of him. Dudley, they knew and were learning still, but he was their first born and they’d had months to adjust to his sensitivities. He was the product of their love, and he was perfect because of it. Harry, well. Harry was strange, seemed to be made up of curiosities and unexplainable happenings and they tried to raise him right, raise him normal, but it seemed to be a lost cause. He came the way he came and had to be raised as what he was.<br/>They noticed it in the small things first, when they were too busy being grateful for the oddities to consider what they might mean together. When the baby had been left on their doorstep, for all appearances abandoned like their home was some sort of orphanage instead of a private residence, and they’d taken him in he was surprisingly healthy. After being left out in the cold like that for heavens knew how long, Petunia would have expected hypothermia to have set in, but the boy was fine. That first time, she had assumed that someone had cast a spell on the blankets or some such, even if the confusing but intransigent letter left with him didn’t mention anything of the sort. Bringing magic into someone’s home uninvited seemed like something one of those sorts wouldn’t think twice about. Later, Petunia wasn’t so sure they’d bothered.<br/>Harry Potter did not get sick, no sniffles nor fever nor ear infections, but it was a relief for Petunia as dealing with her own son’s illnesses was hard enough – a good immune system she’d supposed, or maybe those people had some way of making sure their children stay healthy that normal people didn’t; he never got diaper rash, not like Dudley or any other baby inevitably would; he somehow avoided carpet burn when he learned to crawl then walk and he never cried over skinned knees when he fell because no scrapes or bruises ever marred his skin. The only mark Petunia had ever seen on him was the scar on his forehead. It was then, as the boy grew to be active enough that small injuries were inevitable, that it became obvious. There was something fundamentally wrong with that too-healthy child.<br/>When Harry was big enough to play with toys and dream up complex but irrational stories for the figurines to act out, he would occasionally end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dudley did too of course, and they fussed over every bruise and scrape he acquired. Harry did not bruise, nor bleed, nor cry out from pain even when Vernon accidently stepped on his fingers or Petunia clumsily pushed him too hard escorting him around and he went crashing down to the floor. If a door were to be slammed on Harry’s hand, the door might be damaged while the boy would wander off, uninjured.<br/>When they moved him out of the nursey, so Dudley could have his own room, they put him in the cupboard under the stairs. Monsters, they reasoned, were best kept hidden away in closets.</p><p>---</p><p>Raising a child is difficult. Juggling the physical wellbeing and happiness of someone who is small, fragile, and likely to cry at the drop of a hat has to be offset with providing income to cover the child’s never-ending needs and taking care of oneself. Freakish children, however, do not require such attentive, loving care, as the little demons cannot be harmed physically and should not, under any circumstances, be brought up to believe that such freakishness is acceptable. The Dursleys would know, responsible for both nurturing their precious Dudikins and that Harry Potter abhorrence as they were.<br/>It was a balancing act, properly bring up two children so different without arousing the notice or suspicions of concerned but ignorant neighbors or teachers. Their angel deserved praise and attention, so human and normal while still maintaining is many talents. (Dudley could speak full, if short, sentences by the time he was two: Vernon and Petunia were exceedingly proud every time he said “’dat mine” or “gimme” or “I want,” pointing impatiently to get his point across.) Harry Potter, on the other hand, had to be treated with carefully demonstrated contempt. It would not do for the devil child to think himself in any way superior to normal children or people, so scathing remarks on his worthiness and slights on his parents—reckless, idiotic burdens on society that they were—had to be dispensed regularly. They were also careful not to reward him for what would be achievements in other—normal—children, ignoring his attempts at speech until he realized that words were less endearing than silence as far as the Dursleys were concerned.<br/>But in a few years both boys would start school, and any of their ward’s failings would reflect poorly on the Dursleys, and only so much can be deflected off on his late mother and father. So they left him the children’s books that Dudley liked least, did not shoo him from the room when it was story time and let him sit in on the math lessons Vernon decided Dudley should receive, provided of course that he did not interrupt or attempt to sabotage their baby by distracting him in any way. Harry Potter sat silently, observing, as Dudley Dursley was tutored by Vernon in arithmancy and literacy by Petunia, and he learned.</p>
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